Ownership of NAB.com and NAB.net was transferred back to the big four bank last month in a deal that could have been worth up to several million dollars. NAB confirmed it had acquired the domains but declined to reveal what it paid.

Domain name broker and CEO of DBR.com.au Robert Kaay said domain names with one, two or three letters were particularly valuable and estimated the bank would have needed to pay more than $US2 million ($2.5 million) to get the deal done.

"I can't see the previous owner letting it go for less than that," Mr Kay said.

He pointed to the sale of the domain name fly.com by TravelZoo earlier this year for $US2.89 million as a benchmark for comparison.

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The market for domain names has been buoyant in 2017 with an unknown buyer paying $2 million for freedom.com in May. Earlier this month $US200,000 was paid for Kombucha.com, capitalising on the popularity of the sweet fermented beverage believed to offer health benefits.

Domain names with a finance or sex theme are among the most valuable property on the internet with records showing a consideration of $35 million being paid for insurance.com in 2010. That same year, $13 million was paid for sex.com.

Wrong email address

NAB.com had been owned by adult website owner and cybersquatter David Weissenberg since 1994. Mr Weissenberg bought the domain along with NAB.net and used the domains to host adult content and a dating website, much to the bank's frustration.

NAB had been in discussion with Mr Weissenberg over the years but failed to get a deal over the line. The domain name standoff between the two parties had been the source of some embarrassment for both the bank and clients who accidentally visited the website.

Mr Wiessenberg has operated a string of provocative domain names over the years including welovenakedgirls.com, onlycheaters.com, videosexlive.com and sexymeeting.com. He acquired a degree of internet infamy when he bought the domain shit.com in the early 2000s.

The mistake was understood to be the result of human error, with the wrong email address used in the carbon copy line by a staff member. The mistake led to the bank taking legal action in a US court back in December 2016 in an effort to straighten out the bungle.

The customers were part of the bank's migrant banking division and among the details included in the breach were client names, BSB numbers, account numbers and NAB identification numbers.

The bank said that 19,000 of the accounts held less than $2 at the time and that 40 per cent of the accounts were either closed or inactive.